Policy Press
One Introduction: from biography to social policy
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Abstract
This book describes the life experiences of individuals in contemporary Europe whose lives have been marked by one or more forms of ‘social exclusion’, as this term has come to be used over the past decade or so (Askonas and Stewart, 2000; Levitas 1998). We try to make meaningful such experiences as being made redundant, being blocked in a career, leaving school without qualifications, finding a place as a migrant in a European country, or bringing up children as a ‘single parent’. These were among the life contingencies that had originally led to individuals being selected for our study sample in the Social strategies in risk society (Sostris) research project, upon which this volume is based.
The project’s research was undertaken between 1996 and 1999, and was funded by the EU Targeted Socio-Economic Research Programme 4 on Social Exclusion. Its aim was to investigate the experience of individuals who found themselves excluded, or at risk of exclusion, from important spheres of life in their societies. For, of the categories of risk that we chose – early retirement, loss of work for traditional industrial workers, unemployment among graduates, and unemployment among unqualified young adults – all were related to the labour market. This choice reflected widespread concern about unemployment in Europe during the 1990s. The other two categories – single parenthood, and migration or membership of an ethnic minority – highlighted dimensions of gender, race and civic status. Our research was conducted in seven European nations – Britain, France, Germany (in particular the former German Democratic Republic), Greece, Italy, Spain and Sweden.
Abstract
This book describes the life experiences of individuals in contemporary Europe whose lives have been marked by one or more forms of ‘social exclusion’, as this term has come to be used over the past decade or so (Askonas and Stewart, 2000; Levitas 1998). We try to make meaningful such experiences as being made redundant, being blocked in a career, leaving school without qualifications, finding a place as a migrant in a European country, or bringing up children as a ‘single parent’. These were among the life contingencies that had originally led to individuals being selected for our study sample in the Social strategies in risk society (Sostris) research project, upon which this volume is based.
The project’s research was undertaken between 1996 and 1999, and was funded by the EU Targeted Socio-Economic Research Programme 4 on Social Exclusion. Its aim was to investigate the experience of individuals who found themselves excluded, or at risk of exclusion, from important spheres of life in their societies. For, of the categories of risk that we chose – early retirement, loss of work for traditional industrial workers, unemployment among graduates, and unemployment among unqualified young adults – all were related to the labour market. This choice reflected widespread concern about unemployment in Europe during the 1990s. The other two categories – single parenthood, and migration or membership of an ethnic minority – highlighted dimensions of gender, race and civic status. Our research was conducted in seven European nations – Britain, France, Germany (in particular the former German Democratic Republic), Greece, Italy, Spain and Sweden.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- Abbreviations v
- Acknowledgements vi
- Notes on contributors vii
- Introduction: from biography to social policy 1
- Suffering the fall of the Berlin Wall: blocked journeys in Spain and Germany 23
- Guilty victims: social exclusion in contemporary France 41
- Premodernity and postmodernity in Southern Italy 61
- A tale of class differences in contemporary Britain 77
- The shortest way out of work 97
- Male journeys into uncertainty 115
- Love and emancipation 131
- Female identities in late modernity 151
- Gender and family in the development of Greek state and society 175
- Corporatist structures and cultural diversity in Sweden 193
- ‘Migrants’: a target-category for social policy? Experiences of first-generation migration 213
- Second-generation transcultural lives 229
- Biographical work and agency innovation: relationships, reflexivity and theory-in-use 247
- Conclusions: social transitions and biographical work 269
- Discovering biographies in changing social worlds: the biographical–interpretive method 289
- Historicising the ‘socio’, theory, and the constant comparative method 309
- Index 329
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- Abbreviations v
- Acknowledgements vi
- Notes on contributors vii
- Introduction: from biography to social policy 1
- Suffering the fall of the Berlin Wall: blocked journeys in Spain and Germany 23
- Guilty victims: social exclusion in contemporary France 41
- Premodernity and postmodernity in Southern Italy 61
- A tale of class differences in contemporary Britain 77
- The shortest way out of work 97
- Male journeys into uncertainty 115
- Love and emancipation 131
- Female identities in late modernity 151
- Gender and family in the development of Greek state and society 175
- Corporatist structures and cultural diversity in Sweden 193
- ‘Migrants’: a target-category for social policy? Experiences of first-generation migration 213
- Second-generation transcultural lives 229
- Biographical work and agency innovation: relationships, reflexivity and theory-in-use 247
- Conclusions: social transitions and biographical work 269
- Discovering biographies in changing social worlds: the biographical–interpretive method 289
- Historicising the ‘socio’, theory, and the constant comparative method 309
- Index 329
